Hello Upwork Family, im not so experienced with upwork and i just had one hourly contract, i finished the job and he ended my contract but he didnt pay hours billed, only gave me bonus, now it shows me "Work in progress" with those money, how am i going to take them ?.. or is it ever gonna happen . Thanks

Your message is confusing, with some ambiguity, so let's try to figure things out...

You said "I finished the job and he ended my contract"

Yes! That is what is SUPPOSED to happen.

You said "but he didnt pay hours billed"

No, that is now how Upwork works. Clients do to "pay for hours billed."

Clients are AUTOMATICALY billed for the time that you log while working on an hourly contract. There is nothing for them to do, no button to push.

re: "only gave me bonus"

That's great! That's good news. A bonus is NOT expected, but is a very nice additional thing for a client to give you.

I'm no sure there is a problem here. You said the client "didn't pay for hours billed." Clients don't do that. Are you 100% certain that payment for the work you did does not show up somewhere on your "Reports" page? If you used Upwork's time-tracking tool to log time while working, OR if you entered manual time using the work diary, then the time you worked simply must show up there. And that means you will get paid. What do YOU see when you look there?

Upwork -> Reports -> Overview -> [Work in Progress]

Do you see money associated with your hourly work? If you do NOT see the money on your Reports -> Overview page, then it means that you (the freelancer) made a mistake.

You said "now it shows me 'Work in progress' with those money"

If you DO SEE the payment for your hourly work in the "Work in Progress" box, then that is where the money SHOULD be. NEXT the money will go into the "In Review" box. THEN the money will go into "Pending." THEN the money will go into "Available." And then you can withdraw the money into your own account!

If you see the money in "Work in Progress," it means that within a couple weeks, you'll be able to withdraw it. That's how things work here. It's awesome.

Thank you very much, now i'm clear, this was my first experience with "Hourly Contracts", and i thought that client should pay like Fixed Price where he pays you whenever he wants. Thank you, and sorry for posting this topic 3 times in different categories .

I'm glad everything worked out. It is easy to see how you might have been confused if you had only used fixed-price contracts.

The great news is that hourly contracts are much simpler for freelancers!

For me, getting paid automatically and the client does NOTHING is better than relying on the client to do something.

(Fixed-price contracts can be paid out automatically, but only after 14 days of client inactivity. And it is possible for clients to request changes. I make more money and have an easier time when I work using hourly contracts.)

Manual time is not protected under our Upwork Hourly Protection. To be protected under our payment protection you will need to track your time with our desktop app. To learn more about the requirements needed and how you`re protected check out our guide on Upwork Hourly Protection. Thank you.